THE Centre has issued a fresh clarification about the procedure for booking air-tickets for LTC journeys after it has observed that various ministries and departments continue to send references to DoPT seeking relaxation regarding the booking of air tickets for the purpose of LTC from unauthorized travel agents. The recent office memorandum reminds an earlier order (June 19, 2014), where it was said that the government employees need to book air tickets directly from the…airlines (booking counters, website of airlines) or by utilizing the service of authorized travel agents viz. M/s Balmer Lawrie and Company, M/s Ashok Travels and Tours and IRCTC, for booking LTC journeys. In fact, IRCTC which is a railway PSU is authorized after the DoPT issued an office memorandum dated December 2, 2009.
LTC means Leave Travel Concession, which is availed by the government employees as well.
In April this year, the Centre had relaxed Leave Travel Concession (LTC) norms to allow unmarried government employees to avail of the LTC facilities (under home town LTC) while traveling anywhere in the country. An unmarried government officer belonging to, say Mumbai, can now travel to Goa instead under Home Town LTC scheme and claim the benefits.
The government, however, wants the government employees book their tickets for LTC journeys only through the authorized agencies. "In most of the cases (where relaxation is sought later), the common reason stated by the LTC beneficiaries is that they were not aware of the guidelines and inadvertently booked the tickets from other travel agents", according to the recent office memorandum.
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